The present disclosure relates to server band steering for wireless clients in a wireless network, and in particular, one embodiment of the disclosure relates to band steering based at least in part on wireless signal strengths.
In a conventional wireless network, such as a wireless network in accordance with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g standards, a single communication band is used for packet transmissions. With the development of wireless technology, e.g., IEEE 802.11n standard, wireless networking devices today support network communications on multiple communication bands, such as 2.4 GHz band and 5 GHz band. Likewise, wireless client technology today can provide client devices with capability to communicate via channels on multiple communication bands. Hence, guiding those client devices to communicate on a preferred communication band can improve the throughput and thus the performance of a wireless network.
Band steering is a wireless technique that is used to guide a client device capable of communicating in channels on multiple communication bands to establish an association with a wireless network on a preferred communication band. With conventional band steering techniques, after receiving requests transmitted from the client device on a preferred communication band, the client device is identified as capable of communicating on the preferred communication band. Thus, the wireless network service system will respond to requests received from the client device on the preferred communication band and ignore requests received from the client device on other non-preferred communication bands. Accordingly, client devices capable of communicating on multiple communication bands will be effectively directed to establish associations with the wireless network on the preferred communication band.
Nevertheless, although a communication band may be preferred in general, it is possible that, under various circumstances, a different communication band may become preferred for the same client device, which is capable of communicating on multiple communication bands. For example, when a client device is located far enough from an access point in a wireless network, the client device may receive stronger signals on 2.4 GHz communication band than on 5 GHz communication band. Moreover, static band steering based on band capacities of client devices does not take into account such factors as mobility of the client devices. Specifically, a client device capable of communicating on 5 GHz communication band could have excellent connectivity on 5 GHz communication band previously. However, the same client device might be moved later to a location where received signals on 5 GHz communication band become weaker than signals on the 2.4 GHz communication band. Thus, poor connectivity for the client device could result from following the conventional band steering technique to guide the client device to communicate on 5 GHz band after the client device's move.